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Make it "Click" This Thanksgiving

November 12, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (03-172)
For more information, contact:
Patrice O’Hara
KDOT Bureau of Traffic Safety: (785) 296-3756

Make it "Click" This Thanksgiving

As you travel this Thanksgiving holiday, make it a safe one by buckling up your family. Law enforcement agencies across the state will be out in force during this Thanksgiving holiday, enforcing occupant protection laws and impaired driving laws.

The Kansas Clicks mobilization is a stepped-up, coordinated enforcement effort during the Thanksgiving holiday from November 18 to December 1, 2003. The Kansas Highway Patrol and 81 local law enforcement agencies will enhance enforcement and public awareness efforts during the two-week time period.

“We know safety belts save lives,” said Deb Miller, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT). “In 2002, 74 percent of the Kansans killed in vehicle crashes were not wearing their safety belts. To increase your chance of surviving a crash, seat belts are your best defense against serious injury or death in a crash.”

According to the 2003 KDOT Safety Belt survey, 64 percent of those surveyed, age 14 and older, use their seat belt. “The Kansas Clicks STEP program will work to increase those numbers by raising enforcement and education on safety belts throughout the state,” said Miller.

The Kansas Clicks Special Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) mobilization, sponsored by KDOT, is a coordinated effort where the Kansas Highway Patrol and local law enforcement agencies target drivers who are not securing their children in safety seats or belts. Increased patrols to enhance enforcement and public awareness will be utilized during the two-week mobilization. In addition to those efforts the KDOT Safety Belt Education Office will continue to coordinate child passenger safety training and educate Kansans about safety belt issues in order to prevent fatalities and injuries on the roads.

Along with occupant protection enforcement, agencies can perform sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols aimed at removing impaired drivers from Kansas roadways.

Enforcement mobilizations will be conducted across the state from November 18 to December 1 by the Kansas Highway Patrol and 81 participating local law enforcement agencies, including police departments, sheriff’s offices, and campus police departments.

Editor’s note: Attached is the list of the 81 local law enforcement agencies in the state who will be participating in the Kansas Clicks Special Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) from November 18 to December 1 along with the Kansas Highway Patrol.